Ratings: Extant Launches With Sub-Dome Demo, SYTYCD and Taxi Dip

CBS’ Extant launched on Wednesday with 9.6 million total viewers — the night’s largest audience — and a 1.6 rating (per finals), placing second in the demo only to lead-in Big Brother and standing as the summer’s most watched and highest-rated series debut.

The Halle Berry-fronted sci-fi series — which TVLine readers gave an average grade of “B+” — matched Under the Dome’s Season 2 premiere audience yet fell shy of its 2.1 demo rating. (NBC notes that in head-to-head competition at 9pm, an America’s Got Talent rerun tied the well-promoted Extant‘s demo delivery, and that its The Night Shift also debuted to a 1.6.)